


Two for Sorrow, Three for Joy

by kesomon



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Episode Tag, Everybody Lives, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-18
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-03-06 07:37:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13406532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kesomon/pseuds/kesomon
Summary: Once, long ago and lifetimes past, Ian and Barbara bid farewell to the Doctor on the planet Mechanus, and took a Dalek time ship into the Vortex, aiming for home.The Doctor never knew what became of them.Now, in his exile, a connection of his present soon proves to be a link to his past.





	Two for Sorrow, Three for Joy

**Author's Note:**

> This one started from watching the farewell scene from The Chase for Ian and Barbara. The Doctor gives them a 50% chance of failure, and looks devastated when they vanish into the Vortex. What if he never found out if they made it home?
> 
> It kinda mutated, like much of my fic does.
> 
> I do have a second chapter planned, hopefully my muse remains awake enough to finish it.

"-and of course Professor Chesterton just wasn't having it; I've never seen--"

"--What was that?" the Doctor interrupted, quite suddenly. Liz blinked, taken aback by the Time Lord's sudden attention.

"I said Professor Chesterton started arguing with the Dean, and--...Doctor? Are you all right?" The Time Lord had gone a bit pale, hand grasping blindly for the counter-top as he sank onto a laboratory stool. It was rather alarming; beyond the first day Liz had met him, shaking off the sickness of forced regeneration, he'd never taken ill, but now he looked rather on the verge of a faint. She put her notebook down and reached for his arm.

"They're alive," he muttered, tremulous and amazed. "They made it, they actually-" And to Liz's shock, her normally unflappable boss bowed his head, hiding his face beneath the cover of a hand as his shoulders heaved with a silent sob.

Liz hesitated only a breath before she dropped her pen to the counter and wrapped her arms around the Time Lord's shoulders, rubbing a hand in comfort back and forth over the velvet of his coat. Emotions were not her forte; nonsense words and soothing sounds were all she could offer as she puzzled over his reaction.

The Doctor could not explain to her the depth her words had shaken him. Ian Chesterton. Barbara Wright. He could remember so clearly the last time he'd seen them. Standing at the helm of a Dalek space-time machine, trying to explain the concepts and workings of fourth-dimensional travel in terms a third-dimensional race could understand; all the while, knowing it was idiocy, a futile glimmer of a chance that it would work at all. But the humans were full of hope, longing for the chance to go home, and he couldn't refuse them. He had grown fond of them both, in the two years since the junkyard at Totter's Lane. Ever more so, since Susan had left him.

His hearts had ached like nothing else could, watching the capsule vanish into the Vortex. The TARDIS could not track the Dalek ship. He had no way of knowing, whether they had made it home in the end.

But he had Vicki still, and Steven to look after, he couldn't mourn the what-ifs and never-weres. Then Katarina, and Sara, Ben and Polly, and his body had worn thin, failed him, cast him to the fires of renewal. He'd thought about finding them, after his change, but he could barely stomach the possibility that he'd find they had perished. So he'd continued, as Ben and Polly left, as Victoria came and went, staying one step ahead of the Time Lords on his heels. Until Jamie. Until Zoe. They'd been taken from him in the end. His life had been taken. His freedom, _taken_ , and with it, any chance of seeing his old friends again.

To know Ian and Barbara were safe, alive and well and _here_...

He rested his head against his assistant's ribs, drawing on her strength and shield to compose himself.

"I'm sorry, Liz," he rasped, drawing back from her after a short while. She politely ignored the redness of his eyes, the swipe of a hand across moistened cheeks. "I was caught off guard for a moment. I didn't mean to blub on your coat."

"It's had worse," she offered to lighten the mood, still concerned. "It's more the why I'm worried about. I don't normally make people cry just by speaking."

The Doctor chuckled, patting her arm. "Oh Liz, you against a lecture hall of incompetent bumblers? I've no doubt in your abilities. You make them cry all you like."

Liz cracked a smile at that, uncertain whether to feel insulted or flattered; she went with flattered. But it still left the question unanswered. "Doctor," she prompted, impatient.

He sighed, scrubbing hands over his face one last time, and stood to set a flask - marked 'FOR TEA PURPOSES ONLY' in bold, black letters - atop a Bunsen burner. Only when the water was heading towards a boil and he'd fussed over preparing a few mugs, did he began to speak.

"A few centuries ago, by my age; before I was exiled, the first time I came to Earth, I met...an extraordinary pair of humans." He smiled fondly. "Of course, at the time, I didn't think much of it, or them for that matter...they were a pair of schoolteachers from Coal Hill School who bumbled their way onto my TARDIS, in search of my granddaughter, out of misplaced concern for her safety, and, well, it was hardly _my_ fault-"

"You mean you _kidnapped_ them?" Liz laughed, coming to the correct, embarrassing conclusion. The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Might have done; it was a lifetime or two ago, after all. But I have a feeling the TARDIS...took the situation into her own hands, so to speak." He grinned rakishly at his assistant. "Sometimes, I think she knows better than I what's best for me. We travelled for two years together, not quite by choice; the TARDIS simply refused to land anywhere near their own time and place."

"So what happened to them? Did they get sent home?"

The smile faded. "The last I saw of them, we were on a planet called Mechanus, saying goodbye. They decided to take their chances with a Dalek timeship, to try and get back to Earth. It was a...a foolish, _stupid_ gamble. The odds of them successfully arriving on Earth, let alone in 1963..." the Doctor's breath hitched and he hurriedly swiped the corner of his eye with a thumb, staring into space. "Ian and Barbara taught me to open my eyes to the wonders of Earth. If not for them, I don't...." he trailed off, sorrow in his voice. "I wouldn't be the man I am today."

"Ian and - Doctor? Do you mean...not Ian and Barbara _Chesterton_?" Realisation coloured Liz's surprised exclamation.

" _Barbara_ Chesterton?" The Doctor repeated with faint surprise, and then pride shone in his eyes. "Oh. Oh! Well! Good on them both. Yes. The Chestertons. Well, Ian Chesterton, and Barbara Wright then; science and history. None better to explore the universe with. Until today, when you mentioned your professor...I'd given up hope. Liz, thank you." He reached out to take her hands, squeezing them together and laying a kiss of gratitude on the backs of her palms. " _Thank you_ , my dear girl. You've given me back something very precious."

"No, but _Doctor_ ," Liz said, taking her hands back with some frustration, "You're not listening! They were my professors at Cambridge, before I started working for UNIT! They work there _now,_ _here,_ on Earth in 1970! You could go and visit them, it's only a few hours' drive."

The same realisation entered the Doctor's face; for a brief moment, age lifted away from the lines of his face, reflecting the boyish delight that dwelled within. It fell, just as quickly, as he shook his head, fetching a mitt to pour water for their mugs. "No, no; they wouldn't recognise me, surely. I barely recognise me; regeneration's a tricky business, and I've done it twice since; besides, it's...best not to barge in on their lives, not after so long." He sounded defeated. "Probably wouldn't remember me at all."

"Doctor," Liz said, firmly, and he looked up to see her hands planted on her hips, a stern expression on her face. "When it comes to humans, you've still got a _lot_ to learn. Namely, that we aren't that easy to get rid of." She pulled him away from the tea-things by the arm, marching for the laboratory door. "Come on, we're going to see the Brigadier."

"Liz? What on Gallifrey - No, _wait_ , Liz, the burner!"

( _She let him go back to turn off the flame. It wouldn't do to burn the whole of UNIT down, after all, chasing dreams of the past._ )


End file.
